Reducing the Disney "Experience"

[BigAlsGal]

I know!!!! They took the spicy tuna noodles away at sunshine seasons!!! Just punch me in the face why don't ya! Kick me in the groin!!! Please for the love of god and all that is holy bring it back!!!

 

[abaldacci]

I agree, all sign point to things beginning to happen at DHS and DAK, but they are very late. Modern Disney management, particularly in Orlando, continues to extract higher prices (well above inflation) without significant increases in value. Declining by degrees is true across the Disney Orlando parks. In my opinion, current Disney management only sees the Disney Parks as revenue sources and really don't understand the parks or the people who do love the parks.

All you have to do is look at the financials, growth in profits from the Disney parks is down and I argue it's because of shortsighted management that started at the top. They don't have realistic pricing on accommodations. The company's reinvestment in park attractions is lower than ever. Prices on food are skyrocketing and the quality is dropping. Current management sees the Orlando Disney parks simply as a revenue source and doesn't understand that those profits are the result of years of investments -- many from the Eisner era. They have lost the heart and soul and imagination that makes Walt Disney World such a special place for so many people.

very well said!!!!!!!!
I think some people just have not been around to see the loss that is happening. Some just don't understand quality

 

[BugsDaddy]

I find it interesting that some of the same people who find Disney failing to provide the type of experience they want are also some of the same people who are on the phone at 6:00 am the day new rates or a new promotion is announced. Disney attendance continues to grow in record numbers and I would guess probably has one of the greatest customer return rates ever seen in the industry.

If it was all as horrible and depressing as many on this board would want you to believe, attendance would be declining, not increasing.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even those who actually like Disney.

The group I feel sorry for are the people who have just found this forum and are maybe trying to plan a Disney vacation for the first time and see negative post after negative post with really no useful information to be gained. And many of that by the same set of posters who know who they are.

I think they should create a new sub section just for people to go and voice their displeasure about Disney and leave it out of the trip planning forums.

 

[BugsDaddy]

I will also add that I found the Disboards about 10 years ago while planning my first Disneyworld vacation and it was a much different experience. There were a lot of helpful people and threads (and there still are some) and not as much negativity although Disney wasn't perfect then either.

 

[Planogirl]

I will also add that I found the Disboards about 10 years ago while planning my first Disneyworld vacation and it was a much different experience. There were a lot of helpful people and threads (and there still are some) and not as much negativity although Disney wasn't perfect then either.

I agree and I'm sure that there is a reason for it.

As for your previous post, those who control the forums have made it pretty clear that all are welcome to post here as long as they stay within certain parameters. Simply disagreeing isn't enough to move people to another forum.

 

[magicbob]

I will also add that I found the Disboards about 10 years ago while planning my first Disneyworld vacation and it was a much different experience. There were a lot of helpful people and threads (and there still are some) and not as much negativity although Disney wasn't perfect then either.

No, Disney wasn't perfect then. But it should be noted that the "vast majority" of "negative posters" (we know who we are) are the same people who were those helpful people several years ago. One of the most helpful posters in the history of the DIS (who shall remain nameless but I'm sure you can figure it out), is a fairly vocal critic of FP+. Does that negate the thousands of helpful posts this person has posted (and continues to post) over the years? Or make them a "negative" person? I think not.

The negativity is a REACTION to changes that DISNEY has made that many people do not like (primarily FP+ but also the removal of lots of "extras" recently).

We still provide helpful information on threads when people are asking for help. But this is not ONLY a "help" board. It is a DISCUSSION board. How could such a huge paradigm shift NOT cause a great deal of heated discussion?

To a certain degree, Disney has also reduced our ABILITY to post helpful tips, etc. because they keep moving the goal post. In the past, many of us shared our knowledge and experience with others for years in order to help them have as positive an experience as we did. Well, many of those "helpful tips" have suddenly become obsolete when Disney yanked the rug out from under everyone. We ALL have to figure out new strategies to share, so that would account for fewer "helpful" posts. Many of our "helpful tips" cannot be shared any more without adding to the end... "oh wait, you can't do that any more." And even when we figure out a useful strategy for the new system, the goal post suddenly changes again the next day (and you know how much we fear change!), making that helpful advice worthless (and worse, it can actually become BAD advice due to no fault of our own).

Sadly, many of the "new" strategies that are emerging seem to only be possible by exploiting loopholes or glitches in the system. There are some legitimate and some not-so-legitimate work-arounds being suggested (and many people can't agree on where the line differentiating the two is drawn), which has also increased the number of discussions about the ethics of employing such strategies. This, in turn, just adds to the perceived "negativity" on the boards. But when you look to the root cause, you find that this, too, has occurred as a reaction to what Disney has done, not because people here have changed and become more negative people.

One could argue that pointing out the negatives of the new system DOES help people because they will be educated and not going in blind with unrealistic expectations of being able to do things they cannot. You cannot develop a strategy to work around the limitations of FP+ for example, if all you're reading is how wonderful it is and no one is shining a light on the restrictions it places on you. I would also argue that some of the "new experts" are espousing "unproven" strategies that could blow up in a newbies face given the current climate at WDW. I would rather go there knowing that these things are happening to many guests and be prepared to handle them if they happen to me instead of being blind-sided.

One person's "negativity" is another person's "candor."

 

[Doug7856]

I find it interesting that some of the same people who find Disney failing to provide the type of experience they want are also some of the same people who are on the phone at 6:00 am the day new rates or a new promotion is announced. Disney attendance continues to grow in record numbers and I would guess probably has one of the greatest customer return rates ever seen in the industry.

If it was all as horrible and depressing as many on this board would want you to believe, attendance would be declining, not increasing.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even those who actually like Disney.

The group I feel sorry for are the people who have just found this forum and are maybe trying to plan a Disney vacation for the first time and see negative post after negative post with really no useful information to be gained. And many of that by the same set of posters who know who they are.

I think they should create a new sub section just for people to go and voice their displeasure about Disney and leave it out of the trip planning forums.

Not anymore, at least for us. We've just seen the Disney park experience (at Walt Disney World) deteriorate -- and at a surprisingly fast rate.

Pointing out the failings of the current CEO who fails to understand the Theme Park business -- something that remains a significant part of the Disney Company -- isn't because people "hate" Walt Disney World, it's because we love the place and know that what we have now is a knockoff of the destination it used to be.

Financially under Iger, the Parks have had a string of poor performing years, even with record attendance. This isn't for a lack of guests, it's a direct result of a lack of good management that connects with the Disney DNA and understand the balance between magic, imagination and good business practices.

 

[quandrea]

life is what you make of it so is your VACATION......seems like most of you need to go else where from now on for some new Experiences.....

I'm sorry to say but I think I agree. We are here now and the magic is alive and well. I haven't hsd to plan every last detail. Most times I've made fastpasses for my group of five the night before. That includes rides such as rock n roller coaster and Everest.

On our Mk mornin we rode ten rides in two hours including mine train. And we are by no means s fast moving family with our five yo twins.

We've done multiple rides on Everest, mine train and space mountain.

The only hiccup was on TOT and that was due to someone vomiting on the ride.

We spend thirty to forty days a year at Disney. Of course we hit a glitch every now and then. For the most part though it is amazing.

 

[Luvchefmic]

First I very much agree with the beautifully stated posts above written by magicbob and Doug7865.

I'd like to add my opinion.

I usually shudder a little when someone refers to Wikipedia as a source but I went looking on the internet to confirm what I have had nagging in the back of my mind. The feeling that things have really started to change drastically when the last Disney relative that was truly involved in the operations died.

Nephew Roy E Disney died in 2009, while that may not be new information to most here I think it really was a turn in events where the " Disney experience as we know it " started to take a very different direction. Very interesting read in the link below.

Thoughts ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_E._Disney

 

[mom2rtk]

First I very much agree with the beautifully stated posts above written by magicbob and Doug7865.

 

[bohemian21]

Gone also from Epcot is Myuki, the incredibly talented "candy lady."/QUOTE]

FWIW, Miyuki decided to retire. It wasn't Disney's decision, it was hers.

 

[tony67]

No, Disney wasn't perfect then. But it should be noted that the "vast majority" of "negative posters" (we know who we are) are the same people who were those helpful people several years ago. One of the most helpful posters in the history of the DIS (who shall remain nameless but I'm sure you can figure it out), is a fairly vocal critic of FP+. Does that negate the thousands of helpful posts this person has posted (and continues to post) over the years? Or make them a "negative" person? I think not.

Exactly - and a lot of those people are just gone...

The restaurant board is a shadow of what it used to be - even a year or so ago.

As I've said before many of these people are the same people that defended Disney tooth and nail...until they finally Disney removed one thing too many.

 

[tony67]

I find it interesting that some of the same people who find Disney failing to provide the type of experience they want are also some of the same people who are on the phone at 6:00 am the day new rates or a new promotion is announced. Disney attendance continues to grow in record numbers and I would guess probably has one of the greatest customer return rates ever seen in the industry.

Keep in mind these are not people that hate Disney .....they hate that direction Disney has taken...and they keep returning hoping that it is going to improve...but it doesn't IMO...It may still improve...

Even the F&W festival has been declining over the last few years..and it will be a while before I book another trip Disney if ever

As for the return rate...that remains to be seen...based on what I see hear and on the people I speak with in the real world...I think the return rate is a concern..and may be part of the reason they are changing a lot of the entertainment options...people don't want to see the same show every year..i sure don't...but how about providing entertainment equivalent to what your getting rid of?

 

[elleherself]

We decided after our "last trip" that it was the "last trip" for awhile. They were just rolling out magic bands at that time, and it was our first trip with enforced fastpass return times (they were still paper though). We saw the writing on the wall. For us, it was time to put Disney on the shelf and see other things. I'd made peace with it, we had a good run... Plus we got Universal annual passes!

You would not BELIEVE how many "little things" they've added there. It blew my mind and made me tear up more than once, just seeing how much things changed from my trip last December (with the construction walls up) to this August! INCREDIBLE stuff happening over on the "dark" side.

But Disney always beckons, I came here for a little peek after returning from a work trip (I'm a nanny). We stayed at AKL and did not do any parks. I got a Mickey monitoring bracelet. It broke and needed to be reprogrammed a few times. I ate at Sanaa. It was overpriced and bland, not at all what I remembered pre-Free Dining! rollouts. I tried to call the front desk from the room. What a noob, pressing the front desk button at a $300+ a night resort and expecting to speak to someone actually at your hotel! Needless to say, adding an extra night was impossible over the phone, so I made the long trek to lobby. The giraffe view was cool.

For me, the "little magic" thing that they took was finding the paint brushes on Tom Sawyer's Island. My sister and I had epic, island spanning battles! Like real life Jake and the Neverland Pirates, for the kids today (... I'm a nanny).

I get my kicks over at Universal. When my wand chose ME... and I could perform real magic... that was MAGIC! It makes me feel the way Disney used to. And I hope will someday again. They're trying things, over there at Disney... but this seems to be the cut back, testing phase of things over there. I'd rather wait until things are shiny and new again. But as my post history will attest, I DON'T sit around here and complain. I just check in, and nod my head, and hang out at the Dark Side. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

 

[Suvadoo]

We decided after our "last trip" that it was the "last trip" for awhile. They were just rolling out magic bands at that time, and it was our first trip with enforced fastpass return times (they were still paper though). We saw the writing on the wall. For us, it was time to put Disney on the shelf and see other things. I'd made peace with it, we had a good run... Plus we got Universal annual passes!

You would not BELIEVE how many "little things" they've added there. It blew my mind and made me tear up more than once, just seeing how much things changed from my trip last December (with the construction walls up) to this August! INCREDIBLE stuff happening over on the "dark" side.

But Disney always beckons, I came here for a little peek after returning from a work trip (I'm a nanny). We stayed at AKL and did not do any parks. I got a Mickey monitoring bracelet. It broke and needed to be reprogrammed a few times. I ate at Sanaa. It was overpriced and bland, not at all what I remembered pre-Free Dining! rollouts. I tried to call the front desk from the room. What a noob, pressing the front desk button at a $300+ a night resort and expecting to speak to someone actually at your hotel! Needless to say, adding an extra night was impossible over the phone, so I made the long trek to lobby. The giraffe view was cool.

For me, the "little magic" thing that they took was finding the paint brushes on Tom Sawyer's Island. My sister and I had epic, island spanning battles! Like real life Jake and the Neverland Pirates, for the kids today (... I'm a nanny).

I get my kicks over at Universal. When my wand chose ME... and I could perform real magic... that was MAGIC! It makes me feel the way Disney used to. And I hope will someday again. They're trying things, over there at Disney... but this seems to be the cut back, testing phase of things over there. I'd rather wait until things are shiny and new again. But as my post history will attest, I DON'T sit around here and complain. I just check in, and nod my head, and hang out at the Dark Side. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

Ironically quite a few former Disney Imagineers are now working at Universal. Maybe that's one of the reasons for the increased attention to detail.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I enjoy a good sarcastic retort. Everyone's magic is based on their own preferences. If a good portion size, a bench and a trash can is your thing, who am I to tell you otherwise. For me the magic lies in things I can't find at my neighborhood playground.

Personally my all-time #1 piece of Disney Magic was the MSEP, Spectromagic version. I still can't listen to the song without getting emotional. And, they replaced it. That one crushed me. Like swore off Disney for all of 6 months because of it. Then got over it and went back and had one of our most magical visits ever. My point is, on this site, when one of your favorite things may have been replaced, you have two options. Moan and groan about it, take to the internet to bad mouth WDW, put down other people's happy experiences and let it ruin your opinion of Disney or try to find something that brings you similar joy elsewhere in the parks. I prefer the latter.

Just chiming in to say....

Dropping MSEP for Spectromagic bummed me out. It didn't stop me form going to Disney. But watching Spectro once was enough and we just didn't watch it any more. When MSEP came back, I was so happy! And now we do purpose to stick around for the evening parade. Last time, I was planning to leave early with my sleepy 3yo. But the lights dimmed and music was about to start and we decided to stick around by the train station as it happened to be the start of the parade. We both enjoyed it immensely. If Spectro, I likely would have stuck with my departure plan.

It is interesting what folks like and don't. But to me--MSEP was a Disney Classic and I was glad they rethought its departure and reinstated it.

 

[granmanh603]

Gone also from Epcot is Myuki, the incredibly talented "candy lady."/QUOTE]

FWIW, Miyuki decided to retire. It wasn't Disney's decision, it was hers.

Early on They also had CM telling people that Off Kilter and Morocin decided to leave by themselves...until they were confronted about it and then it stopped.

 

[JanaDee]

No, Disney wasn't perfect then. But it should be noted that the "vast majority" of "negative posters" (we know who we are) are the same people who were those helpful people several years ago. One of the most helpful posters in the history of the DIS (who shall remain nameless but I'm sure you can figure it out), is a fairly vocal critic of FP+. Does that negate the thousands of helpful posts this person has posted (and continues to post) over the years? Or make them a "negative" person? I think not.

The negativity is a REACTION to changes that DISNEY has made that many people do not like (primarily FP+ but also the removal of lots of "extras" recently).

We still provide helpful information on threads when people are asking for help. But this is not ONLY a "help" board. It is a DISCUSSION board. How could such a huge paradigm shift NOT cause a great deal of heated discussion?

To a certain degree, Disney has also reduced our ABILITY to post helpful tips, etc. because they keep moving the goal post. In the past, many of us shared our knowledge and experience with others for years in order to help them have as positive an experience as we did. Well, many of those "helpful tips" have suddenly become obsolete when Disney yanked the rug out from under everyone. We ALL have to figure out new strategies to share, so that would account for fewer "helpful" posts. Many of our "helpful tips" cannot be shared any more without adding to the end... "oh wait, you can't do that any more." And even when we figure out a useful strategy for the new system, the goal post suddenly changes again the next day (and you know how much we fear change!), making that helpful advice worthless (and worse, it can actually become BAD advice due to no fault of our own).

Sadly, many of the "new" strategies that are emerging seem to only be possible by exploiting loopholes or glitches in the system. There are some legitimate and some not-so-legitimate work-arounds being suggested (and many people can't agree on where the line differentiating the two is drawn), which has also increased the number of discussions about the ethics of employing such strategies. This, in turn, just adds to the perceived "negativity" on the boards. But when you look to the root cause, you find that this, too, has occurred as a reaction to what Disney has done, not because people here have changed and become more negative people.

One could argue that pointing out the negatives of the new system DOES help people because they will be educated and not going in blind with unrealistic expectations of being able to do things they cannot. You cannot develop a strategy to work around the limitations of FP+ for example, if all you're reading is how wonderful it is and no one is shining a light on the restrictions it places on you. I would also argue that some of the "new experts" are espousing "unproven" strategies that could blow up in a newbies face given the current climate at WDW. I would rather go there knowing that these things are happening to many guests and be prepared to handle them if they happen to me instead of being blind-sided.

One person's "negativity" is another person's "candor."

Excellent post.

 

[flicx]

Disney attendance continues to grow in record numbers

This keeps getting stated on multiple threads. Not true, the estimates are similar in the magic kingdom to those in 1991 and 1997. Actually EPCOT attendance numbers are estimated lower than a lot of the big years. A simple google search will give you this information.

 

[BugsDaddy]

This keeps getting stated on multiple threads. Not true, the estimates are similar in the magic kingdom to those in 1991 and 1997. Actually EPCOT attendance numbers are estimated lower than a lot of the big years. A simple google search will give you this information.

I am sorry, but this is just not true. Attendance is at record levels if you include all 4 gates at Disney World. And unlike yourself, I will provide a link to actual data. You can look at a couple of individual years and individual parks and see a couple of years since 1991 where Epcot or Hollywood Studios may have had slightly higher numbers but if you take the entire attendance from all 4 parks into consideration, 2013 was the largest attendance year ever.

http://www.scottware.com.au/theme/feature/atend_disparks.htm